Poets Laureate
What does Laureate mean?
The word laureate means ‘crowned with laurel’ deriving from the Latin word laureatus. The term dates back to Ancient Rome where traditionally a successful person was crowned with a wreath of laurel leaves.
The History of the English tradition of the Poet Laureate
The history of the English poet laureate dates back to the the 12th century and the English Royal House of Plantagenet. Poets were then known as ‘versifiers’ and were favoured by the reigning monarchs and awarded fees and pensions. The patronage of the English Royal houses continued over the centuries by the Tudors and Stuarts.
The position of Poet Laureate was informally created by Charles I for Ben Jonson in 1617, however, the title did not become an official royal office until it was conferred by letters patent on John Dryden in 1670. The position became the Poet Laureate of Great Britain in 1707, when The Act of Union created “Great Britain” as the political name of England, Scotland, and Wales.
The English Poet Laureate is the realm’s official poet.
The British Poets Laureate
English Plantagenet Period
Gulielmus Peregrinus under Richard Coeur de Lion
‘Master Henry’ under Henry III
Robert Whittington under Richard II
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) underEdward III
John Kay under Edward IV (1461-1483)
English Tudor Period
Bernard Andre of Toulouse (1450-1522) under Henry VII
John Skelton (1460-1529) under Henry VIII
Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) under Elizabeth I
English Stuart Period
Samuel Daniel under James I
Ben Jonson under Charles I
Sir William Davenant (Shakespeare’s godson) under Charles I & Charles II
John Dryden (1668-1688)
Thomas Shadwell (1689-1692)
Naham Tate (1692-1715)
Nicholas Rowe (1715-1718)
Laurence Eusden (1718-1730)
Colley Cibber (1730-1757)
William Whitehead (1757-1785)
Thomas Warton (1785-1790)
Henry James Pye (1790-1813)
Robert Southey (1813-1843)
William Wordsworth (1843-1850)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1850-1892)
Alfred Austin (1896-1913)
Robert Bridges (1913-1930)
John Masefield (1930-1967)
Cecil Day-Lewis (1968-1972)
Sir John Betjeman (1972-1984)
Ted Hughes (1984-1998)
Andrew Motion (1999 -2009)
Carol Ann Duffy (2009 – ) (First female Poet Laureate)
The American Poets Laureate
Joseph Auslander (1937-1941)
Allen Tate(1943-1944)
Robert Penn Warren (1944-1945)
Louise Bogan (1945-1946)
Karl Shapiro (1946-1947)
Robert Lowell (1947-1948)
Leonie Adams (1948-1949)
Elizabeth Bishop (1949-1950)
Conrad Aiken (1950-1952)
William Carlos Williams (appointed 1952 but did not serve)
Randall Jarrell (1956-1958)
Robert Frost (1958-1959)
Richard Eberhart (1959-1961)
Louis Untermeyer (1961-1963)
Howard Nemerov (1963-1964)
Reed Whittemore (1964-1965)
Stephen Spender (1965-1966)
James Dickey (1966-1968)
William Jay Smith (1968-1970)
William Stafford (1970-1971)
Josephine Jacobsen (1971-1973)
Daniel Hoffman (1973-1974)
Stanley Kunitz (1974-1976)
Robert Hayden (1976-1978)
William Meredith (1978-1980)
Maxine Kumin (1981-1982)
Anthony Hecht (1982-1984)
Robert Fitzgerald (1984-1985)
Gwendolyn Brooks (1985-1986)
Robert Penn Warren (1986-1987)
Richard Wilbur (1987-1988)
Howard Nemerov (1988-1990)
Mark Strand (1990-1991)
Joseph Brodsky (1991-1992)
Mona Van Duyn (1992-1993)
Rita Dove (1993-1995)
Robert Hass (1995-1997)
Robert Pinsky (1997-2000)
Stanley Kunitz (2000-2001)
Billy Collins (2001-2003)
Louise Gluck (2003-2004 )
Ted Kooser (2004-2005)
Donald Hall (2006-2007)
Charles Simic (2007-2008)
Kay Ryan (2008- )
